(VOVWORLD) - Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam on Friday asked the southern province of Kien Giang to strive to reduce the mortality rate of COVID-19, strictly adhere to social distancing rules, facilitate the smooth circulation of goods, promote the role of the community COVID Team and grassroots police to quickly return to the new normal.

(VOVWORLD) -President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation left Hanoi late Friday for an official visit to Cuba at the invitation of First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of Cuba Miguel Díaz Canel.

(VOVWORLD) - The world recorded a total of 228.3 million cases of COVID-19, including nearly 4.7 million deaths as of Saturday, according to statistics site worldometers.info. In the past 24 hours, the world recorded an additional 560 thousand new cases and 8,400 new deaths.

(VOVWORLD) - 11,521 new infections were recorded in Vietnam from 5:00 p.m. on Thursday to 5:00 p.m. on Friday, said the Ministry of Health. 15 cases were imported and 11,506 cases were locally-transmitted, Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong reported nearly 10,000 cases.

(VOVWORLD) -Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam inspected COVID-19 prevention and control in the southern province of Tien Giang, where there have been reports about the decline of infection cases.

(VOVWORLD) -President Nguyen Xuan Phuc sent a letter to teenagers and children across the Vietnam on Friday, four days ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on next Tuesday.

(VOVWORLD) - FPT Corporation said it will open a school to teach and raise 1,000 children to adulthood who have lost parents due to the coronavirus. FPT Chairman Truong Gia Binh said FPT will take care of them for 20 years, at an annual total cost of 3.5 million USD.

(VOVWORLD) - China's Taiwan Bureau of Foreign Trade reports that Taiwan imported about 22,000 tons of tea from 32 partners worldwide in the first 8 months of this year.

(VOVWORLD) - The police in Vietnam's northern province of Dien Bien have confiscated a moon bear cub from an illegal wildlife trader and will hand it over to a Hong Kong-based charity that seeks to end cruelty to animals in Asia.

(VOVWORLD) - Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said on Friday that the Politburo basically agreed with the Government and Party Personnel Department’s assessment of pandemic prevention and control, socio-economic development, and State budget from the beginning of this year. But he urged for more work to be done.